Jess Granger

Part Three, Posts 21-30

“Go!” Ethel shouted as she flew toward the control panels. “Go, now. Go,” she urged, grabbing Anne’s hand and shoving it forward on the launch throttle.

“What are you doing?” Anne threw her elbow back into Ethel’s gut, doubling her over. The ship pitched as it rocketed toward the edge of the atmosphere. Ethel groaned as she fell to the floor. Qinn grabbed her arm and hauled her up against his chest.

“What’s gotten into you?” he gave her a little shake, or it could have been the ship. Ethel wasn’t sure and she didn’t care.

“The darkness,” she whispered. Qinn’s clear eyes widened, just a flash of shock and understanding. It was all Ethel needed to breathe again.

“Go,” Qinn commanded. “Get out of here, Anne. We’re in trouble.”

Ethel crumbled to the floor and clutched her com. The ship’s engines roared as Qinn plotted with Anne to hide in a disruption field near Cheno.

They’d have to make it there first, and Devar was as quick as he was cunning.

She furiously worked her com trying to find the hook. She knew he planted one. She’d have to disable it. It was practically a beacon stamped to her forehead. Come and kill me. I’m right here.

While searching for the hook, she tried to find his ship’s signature. If she could lock on it, maybe she could wake the latent virus in his ship’s system and slow him down. It was a trick she’d used before, and he’d probably be watching for it, but her options were as limited as Anne’s firepower.

“What’s your offensive protocol?” she asked, pulling herself to the control panels to the right of the pilot.

“Shoot what I got and hope for the best,” Anne admitted through gritted teeth.

Perfect.

“We’re Screwed, we’re screwed,” Keo sang, repeating the mantra incessantly as he flew in circles around Ethel’s head. She tried to swat him away. She had to concentrate. There was only one way to disable the hook, and it was going to hurt like a farch.

She heard Qinn shout something to Anne, but she didn’t listen as she dragged herself to the corner and closed her eyes. She had to activate her implants. The biomech enhancers had been there since she was an infant, but she only ever used them when her life depended on it.

If Devar caught her, she’d be dead.

She concentrated on opening that tightly closed door in her real mind, then screamed. The rush of sudden pain overwhelmed her, reducing her to a shaking mass on the floor.

She heard her name, Qinn, he called to her, but she couldn’t see him. All she could see was code, endless strings of code swirling around her, as if she’d fallen into a new dimension of nothing but threads of woven information.

She felt the tingling in her palm as she activated her com. She was one with the computer, completely linked to it. She felt the pressure of hands on her shoulders, but she didn’t feel them. She didn’t feel anything.

She saw the hook. Like a twisted worm, it wrapped through the code of her com. Digits flashed by in a swirling red background but she focused on the anomaly, the small breaks in the pattern that sneered at her with dominating arrogance.

I can see you.

She heard his voice deep in her mind. Damn him. She’d kill him the second she got the chance. Her consciousness floated in an undefined swirl of code, there was nothing to see.

You can’t escape me now.

Watch me. She threw out new commands into the threads of code, breaking up the hook, but the worm seemed to squeeze tighter. She found she couldn’t breathe. It was like being trapped beneath water as she heard her name again. Was she shaking?

With every milligram of her strength, she worked the code, the new threads streaming out of what would have been her arms if she had a body in this form.

She wrenched the hook free, with a thought, inserted the virus in the remainder of the code, then let herself return to her human mind.

She gasped, and found her face pressed against the warm sun-darkened skin of Qinn’s chest.

“Hey, you with me?” he murmured, his rough hand smoothing her hair back from her face.

She couldn’t speak, she felt limp, so cold.

“We’ve got trouble!” Ann shouted. “Weapons, now! They’ve got us!”

Ethel twisted on to her side and let out a choked sob. It was too late.

The ship shook with the force of the dimension fields breaking. Ethel tried to open her eyes, , but she still hurt from using her implants. She struggled to push her torso off the floor. They were here.

Four pirates walked out of thin air, as if stepping through an unseen doorway. Two of them fired, the screeching sound splitting Ethel’s sensitive ears.

She tried to shout as she watched a flash of blood erupt from Qinn’s chest.

“No!” she choked out. He stumbled forward, throwing himself on his attacker as Anne swung a mean looking slice of dark metal at the head of another one. Ethel’s heart beat in her throat as he stepped out of thin air, looking as murderous as she’d ever seen him.

She tried to reach for a gun, but couldn’t move her arms. The pirate in front of Qinn collapsed. Keo flew toward Devar’s face. He caught her bird and unceremoniously tossed him in a sack.

“Stay away from her,” Qinn shouted, charging forward.

Devar shot him in the chest.

No! Please, no.

Qinn crumbled to the floor, Ethel’s eyes fixed on his as Devar’s merciless grasp clasped her upper arm. “You’re mine,” he growled.

The last thing Ethel saw before the dimension jump encased her was the dark purple blood spreading over Qinn’s heart.

When Ethel finally awoke, she found herself in the brig, the chill of the floor seeping into her aching body. She crawled to the door and inspected the lock. She’d have to hack it. Her head still ached, and she felt like she was about to puke. The only way in was to find an independent source to help click it. She turned to her implants and discovered a primitive net somewhere out in the energy web. She reached out to the web and pleaded for help.

Holding on as long as she could, she waited for enough clicks to crack the lock.

Ethel collapsed onto the cold floor of the brig as the lock fizzled and died. She wasn’t quite sure how she did it, but it worked.

“Thank you,” she whispered, not knowing if those who helped tap the lock would ever know.

She pressed the back of her wrist to her eye, and then rubbed her wrist on her pants to rid her wrist of the bloody tears.

Qinn, I’m so sorry.

She tried to shake the image of his blood spilling over the floor out of her head, but couldn’t. It was everywhere. A stabbing ache pounded in her heart, as her chest tightened around it. She had no idea if he was alive or dead. How could he possibly be alive? She’d kill Devar for this and do the universe a favor.

How do you kill a shadow?

Qinn didn’t deserve what happened. She knew he never should have gotten mixed up with her or any of her mess. How would she escape? She needed a bridge to some sort of ship or port to hack the TVI and leap to another location. It was her best bet.

She’d need Keo. Devar had grabbed him. Bastard. He knew Keo was her weak link. She had to go after her bird, and he knew it, so there was one thing she was certain of. Keo would be with Devar.

Her head pounded as she tried to think of a plan. She needed the ship’s schematics, she needed a bridge code for a leap, and she needed her damn bird.

She had to take one thing at a time, and she had to be careful. She didn’t know why Devar didn’t kill her on sight, but she couldn’t rely on that luck holding out. She cracked the lock, a lock designed to contain her. That would frighten him and Devar was always at his most deadly when he was on the defensive.

She placed her hand over her heart and realized her map was no longer in her bra. Ethel fought the urge to leap to her feet and shout her outrage at the unfeeling dark. The map didn’t matter. He could eat the damn thing for all she cared. She had to get off the ship.

Ethel crept out of the door, carefully shut it, hugged the bulkhead. Keeping in the shadows, she crept down the long corridor. If her memory served, the main lift was straight ahead through the maintenance and thrust sectors.

She couldn’t let anyone see her. She needed a different way to the upper levels. Voices bounced off the odd angles of supports and ribs, while the ominous sound of feet falling on the access grate jarred the last of her nerves.

She jumped off the grate into the flooring web below, and tucked herself behind a hot exhaust conduit.

The man and woman were laughing. Perfect.

“Should I check on the prisoner?” the woman asked with a snort as Ethel watched the male, Tams, if she recalled correctly, wrap her in his thick arms and plant a kiss on her neck. She recognized the girl. Uhi.

Ethel never liked her.

“I’ve got something you could check right here,” Tams joked, thrusting his hips forward. Ethel fought the urge to gag as she rolled her eyes. Did he really think that was going to work?

Uhi oozed all over him, giggling. “Yeah, baby. I can take what you got.”

Ethel had to hide her face in her hand. She almost couldn’t bear the embarrassment. She didn’t care that they were about to get frisky, she just had a low tolerance for stupidity.

The lovers stumbled backward shedding clothing until they landed inside an empty equipment locker. They slammed the door shut and the metal box began to shake on the grate above her.

Pulled to action, she hauled herself back up on the grate, grabbed a coil of spare wiring, and looped it tightly around the locker door handles, locking the lovers inside. They didn’t seem to notice.

Ethel gathered up the clothes and ran down the corridor toward maintenance. Tucking herself into an alcove behind a coiled vent stack, she hastily changed her clothes and wrapped her hair up in the sloppy bun Uhi preferred. She was lucky. When Ethel had been crew on this ship, Uhi had changed her appearance to resemble Ethel in a futile attempt to attract Devar. The girl never got it. Ethel huffed under her breath as she pulled the beat up crew cap down over her eyes. She was getting it now.

She hastily searched through the clothing for anything that might help and discovered a code key in Tams’s back pocket.

If she could hack the pass code, she might be able to access the ship schematics from the cargo data station without drawing too much suspicion.

For that she’d need Keo.

Knowing Devar, he’d keep Keo close.

Ethel felt drained as she let her resignation fall on her shoulders. She’d have to go to the captain’s personal quarters.

Keeping her head down, she waved off the shouts of greeting and snide propositions the rest of the crew threw at Uhi. She wouldn’t have much time before someone noticed them in the locker. She had to hurry. She didn’t have much of a chance to catch Devar off guard.

In the main lift, she kept her eyes on her shoes as one of the big Pagat meatheads from security planted a palm firmly on her butt.

“Hey baby,” he slurred. “You happy to see me?”

Ethel didn’t look up, instead she elbowed the jerk in the ribs. “Not now, sweetie,” she cooed as he doubled over. “Got to head to Med to have doc pull out some tip lice.”

The man scuttled to the far side of the lift. Ethel smiled. Maybe a rumor of tip lice would cool Uhi’s personal life down a bit. It would do the girl good.

When she reached level three, she stepped out into the quite corridors. Her body still knew the way from the main lift to Devar’s personal quarters. How many times had her feet traveled this path on the way to his bed? Her stomach did a little flip that didn’t feel like nerves..

What was she thinking? Ethel slipped into the empty lounge. It was prime hours, and the quarters were deserted. If Devar stuck to his rigid routine, and he always stuck to his routine, he’d be in war command with Falk and Tubbs.

She pushed a gaming table to the corner of the compartment for better access to the alarm speaker. Pulling it out of the casing, she exposed one of the wires, and turned to her mind for the third time. She was going to snap several hundred neurons at this rate. She had to be careful. Tuning her implants, she reversed the command for the speaker to relay any sound from the room.

She heard the flip of a wing and a hoarse scraping. Keo was sleeping and sharpening his beak. Perfect.

She shoved the speaker back into the casing and jumped off the table. Keeping an eye over her shoulder, she punched in the security code for Devar’s quarters and silently opened the door. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t changed his lock.

The room was empty, immaculate as always. Her gaze swept over his study, but Keo wasn’t there. Her heart picked up as she tip-toed deeper into the quarters. Her map was probably around somewhere as well. Maybe Keo saw where Devar stashed it.

“Keo?” she called in a cracked whisper. She tried to whistle for him, but her throat was too dry. Where was he?

Ethel crept toward the bedroom. Her trepidation swelled as she instinctively hugged the wall and peeked into the room. Devar’s opulent furnishings used to impress her. He had collected the finest trappings from more cultures than she could count.

She used to believe he was honest, fair. Not anymore, he was a thief, a mercenary and a cold-blooded killer. He had shot Qinn without hesitation. Ethel shuddered feeling sick once again. In the corner of the room, a birdcage was covered with a heavy black blanket.

“Keo,” Ethel whispered. “Wake up.”

She heard a flip of a wing. He was in there.

It could be a trap.

She had to be careful. She didn’t put anything past Devar. Edging around the room, she took care not to touch anything until she came to the cage.

“Keo?” she whispered again. Her heart pounded and her hands shook. She heard a soft plaintive chirrup. Was he hurt?

She reached up and slowly lifted the edge of the blanket.

She screamed as fire shot through her. Her mind barely process the crackling sound as she saw the streaming currents of electricity arc around her. The pain ripped through her body, each of her muscles seized as she fell to the floor. Her head hit the plush carpet, and her consciousness blinked out.

Ethel woke slowly. The pounding in her head reminded her she was still living, but it beat at her skull like a Travarian demanding money. She tried to pull her hand down to her aching head, but something soft and silky constricted around her wrist. She blinked open her eyes, but her vision was blurred, darkness creeping through her peripheral vision.

She followed the blood red silk tied around her wrist to the ornately carved post at the corner of Devar’s bed.

She arched and pulled with all her strength, but he had her strung out like a rabbit in a snare.

“Devar!” she shouted, her rage burning as hotly as her terror.

“It’s about time you woke up,” his low voice slithered out from the shadows at the foot of the bed. The bastard had lit candles. He stalked forward, anger and amusement painted all over his smug face. Dark and handsome as death, his smile flashed, framed by his short and elegantly trimmed goatee. “You won’t escape this time.”

Ethel arched her back so she lean forward, just to defy him. He had stripped her down to her underclothes, but thankfully he had left that much of her dignity. “You killed Qinn.”

“You mean your boyfriend? He didn’t look like your type.” His black as night eyes flashed as his dark expression turned menacing.

“I’m going to kill you,” Ethel promised.

Devar sat at the foot of the bed his weight a familiar sensual promise. “That doesn’t sound like any fun at all, my little vena.”

“Oh, it won’t be.” She kicked out, planting the heel of her foot against his hard thigh, but it barely moved him. “I’ll start with your Nakka.”

Devar chuckled as he crawled forward, edging over her like a great stalking cat. He brushed a lock of hair from her forehead. She thrashed her head at the touch, but with the coolness of the killer he’d become, he simply dropped his attention to the fasteners on her support. Trailing one finger down her neck, he teased the first fastener.

“Why did you cripple my ship?” he asked, as if the were sitting down for a cup of hig. His warm presence hovered above her, and her heart thundered in her chest, just below his taunting fingers.

She threw her head forward and head butted him with all her strength. The shock of pain shook through her body, but he had recoiled, and she’d gladly wear a bruise for a month if it meant he backed off.

“I should kill you,” he cursed as he backed off the bed and rubbed his brow.

“Why don’t you get it over with,” she goaded.

“So you can join your new lover?”

“Are you jealous?” Ethel couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He was insane. The man was completely insane.

“Should I be?” he demanded.

“I barely knew him. He was helping me out, and you shot him for it.” Her voice cracked.

“He’s Tecochan, he’ll survive. Probably. Not that it really matters.”

Hope blossomed in Ethel’s heart. Qinn didn’t deserve to die for her mistakes. But that still left her tied to Devar’s bed.

“Would you like some water?” he asked.

“What?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Devar crossed the room, poured some liquid from an elegant decanter embedded in the wall, and and then used his warm palm to support her head as he offered her a drink. It was probably poisoned.

“In spite of what you obviously think, I don’t want to hurt you, Thel,” he admitted. “You need to know the truth.”

“I’m supposed to listen to the truth from a liar?” she countered.

He leaned forward and squeezed her neck, a simple reminder of her precarious position. His lips came dangerously close to hers, and his long dark lashes lowered over his sinful eyes.

“Hear me out,” he whispered. “Please.”

Ethel stared into Devar’s dark eyes. The cool edge of the glass pressed against her lower lip. At one point she had trusted this man. He had been her captain, her friend.

He had been her lover.

She shivered, her body reacting to his proximity as if none of the pain or betrayal had ever happened. He had used her, and people had died because of it. She had been responsible for death before, but not of children. She couldn’t bear it.

“Drink, Thel,” he coaxed. “I’m not trying to hurt you.”

She wanted to believe it. Part of her heart felt like a Yanet colt tugging against its first set of reins. She wanted to believe she hadn’t loved a killer. She took a slow swallow, the cool water soothing her parched mouth. It tasted crisp, flavored with a sprig of chirp mint and citrus.

The intense look in his onyx eyes softened just a little as she watched them dip down to her lips, then back up to connect with hers again. “Talk,” she stated.

“I was set up. The massacre was not my doing,” he began.

“I was there, Devar,” her stomach clenched with pain. Had he poisoned the water? Or was it just the memory flashing through her battered mind. “I saw what happened. You used me to reprogram the war droids. You gave me the code.”

“That code was given to me by Ambassador Ichale. She was paying us handsomely to deliver the droids to supplement the Camchar forces on Tanar. You know how the droids work. You can link. The Camchar General Iggath wanted them functional as soon as they left our bays, then we were to return to the blockade with permission to keep any loot we plundered from the supply ships. I was given the code, I passed it to you. I didn’t know.” His expression turned grip, his sensual mouth hardening in a thin line. “I swear I didn’t know.”

“Those droids turned around and decimated an entire colony of the Camchar. Why would they attack their own people?” It didn’t make any sense.

“Because Ichale needed a disaster to discredit War Leader Iddat so she could regain power on the War Council. She needed to cause a revolt, and the massacre did that. Going through us gave her a convenient scapegoat.” He clenched his fist as his expression hardened. “No one would believe a three time recipient of the Balor Peace Honor would do such a thing. But they all believed the Darkness could do it.”

Ethel looked closely at his face. She knew his face. She wanted to believe she knew the heart of the man in front of her. How could she be sure? “Do you have proof of Ichale’s treachery?”

He laughed. His voice deepened with bitter amusement. “You destroyed it when your little virus crippled my ship.”

Ethel felt as if she’d been punched in the gut. “How convenient for you.”

“Not really,” he jabbed. “I need to clear my name, and I need your help to do it.” He pressed his body closer, his proximity alone a threat. “You will help me, Thel. You have no other choice.”

“You know better than that, Devar,” she countered. “I always have a a choice, or three.”

He chuckled, softer this time. Ethel felt the familiar tingle of attraction slide down her back. “Are you going to untie me?” she asked.

He let his gaze slide down her prone body and smoothed his goatee in a thoughtful motion. The heat in his gaze nearly burned her as it traveled over her exposed skin. “Are you going to help me?”

“How?” she demanded. “How can I possibly help you?”

“All codes come from somewhere. I was busy trying to find the source of the command code you installed in the droids after the attack when your virus wiped out everything. I had a good lead on a coder in Lim as a possible source. I need you to pull up what you can from that code from your implants.” He began pacing the room, a sure sign he was telling the truth. Devar never got agitated enough to get fidgety unless he was laying something critical on the line. He was too schooled in deception to make such mistakes in the midst of a lie. Of course, he could have gotten even better at deception in the last few months.

“I can’t help you. I purged those codes as soon as I found out what they did.”

Devar smashed the glass of water against the far wall. “Then we’ll need to bribe my contacts in the coder underground.”

Ethel chuckled testing the knot on her left wrist. It had loosened. She might be able to pull her hand free. “Where are you going to get that kind of money?” she asked, keeping him distracted.

“You, of course.” He smiled at her, a flash of sinister white teeth in his dark face.

Ethel shook her head in disbelief. “Good luck with that.”

He sat back down on the bed and spread his body out next to hers. His heat sank into her chilled skin as he drew a lazy finger down the exposed underside of her arm. Her heart pounded in her chest as he leaned in, bringing his face so close to hers. “What’s this?” he whispered against her lips. He pulled back enough to show her the map held delicately between his fingers.

“It’s just a bauble my grandfather left for me,” she dismissed. “It’s worthless.”

“Keo said it was a map.” Devar tilted his chin, teasing her with his closeness. The soft bristles of his chin barely grazed the skin of her cheek.

“That damn bird,” Ethel grumbled. “Where is he?”

“He’s safe, unlike you.” He touched the map to the skin of her cheek, drawing it down over her sensitive skin until he trailed it along the seam of her support. “What is it a map of, Thel?”

“I don’t know.”

Devar nipped, a sharp slice of pain on her jawline near her ear. It awoke a fire deep in her core. “I don’t like being toyed with,” he warned.

Ethel twisted her wrist, and managed to slide the wrap over her thumb. She was free. She couldn’t move yet. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to. If Devar was innocent, she owed it to him to help him bring Ichale to justice. She owed it to herself. If he was lying, she needed to know the truth. Either way, she couldn’t just lay around. She had to make a choice. Could she trust him?

The story continues on The Butterfly Blog on the first of the month. Read the new chapter and vote on what happens next.